When Eric Mangini delivered the news to his players yesterday, there was no celebration, there were no high-fives, there was no cheerful chatter.

It was more of a thank-goodness moment with a sense of relief and appreciation.

With the Jets’ bye coming up on Sunday, despite his team’s 1-8 record, which includes six consecutive losses after Sunday’s 23-20 overtime loss to the Redskins, Mangini opted to give his players four days off, beginning Thursday and going through the weekend.

The Jets will practice today and tomorrow, then the players will scatter their separate ways to be with family and friends and to decompress from what has evolved into an unexpected and unmitigated mess of a season.

“Right now we all need it,” Jets safety Kerry Rhodes said yesterday. “Coach (Mangini) knows we need time away. It’s not good right now; the mood is not good. The best thing for us is to get away, get away from it. I think it was good move by Coach.”

Tight end Chris Baker said, “We need to get away.”

Cotchery praised Mangini for his decision.

“We really appreciate having that time off to allow us to sit back and reflect on everything we’ve been doing this year and allow us to try to figure out some answers for ourselves to try to get better,” he said. “It was a relief knowing that we have that time off to spend with our families. Spending time with your family in times like this is important.

“We’re looking forward to coming back for the second half and at least doing something special.”

With all due respect to Cotchery, special is all but out of the question – barring a run of the table for the final seven games.

But the Jets did make some stark improvements last year after their bye week, which came after eight games.

Following their bye in 2006, the Jets made drastic improvements on:

* Their record, which went from 4-4 to 6-2.

* Their points allowed per game, which went from 24.1 to 12.8, second to only the Ravens in that span.

* Their overall NFL rank in points allowed, which went from 25th to sixth by the end of the season.

* Their overall defensive rank, which went from 31st in the league to 20th by the end of the season.

* Their rank in run defense, which went from 30th to 24th in the league.

* And their pass defense, which went from 22nd to 14th.

There are more areas in need of improvement than we have space to write. The Jets rank a woeful 30th in overall defense, including 29th against the run after allowing 296 rushing yards to the Redskins Sunday. They’re ranked 28th in overall offense.

“It’s no consolation when you lose a game, but I was proud of the effort,” Mangini said. “I thought there were positive things in all areas. (But) when you lose tough games like we have it’s difficult. You lose five games by seven points or less (and) that’s a tough situation.

“It’s encouraging in the sense that those games are close, and if we can improve, if we can make some strides like we did last year during the bye, then some of those will turn in our favor.”

Said Cotchery: “Being able to turn it around after the bye week last year we were able to correct some mistakes we made in the first half and win a lot of games in the second half. We’re looking forward to doing that this year.”

The problem for the Jets is this: There aren’t enough games left for them to turn the season into anything other than less of a disappointment than it’s already become.